“Hi, honey.”
A scream rips from my throat as a tall man suddenly appears at the doorway. It takes me a few seconds to recognize Luc under that unpleasant grin.
Étienne makes a fit, screaming his fucking head off.
God, does he know?
The fury on his face melts away when he walks into the room, avoiding me completely as he approaches his son on the changing table. The stab of anxiety I felt when Frank touched my baby doesn’t hit me with Luc.
He scoops his baby in his arms and holds him to his chest, rubbing his back. Étienne finally stifles his cries.
I’m so grateful that the baby stopped crying that tears spring to my eyes, and I collapse into the rocking chair.
Luc’s voice darkens. “So what the fuck were you talking about with that cop?”
My body immediately breaks into a sweat. “You saw?”
“Oh yeah,” he says in an even blacker voice. “I saw.”
He saw the kiss.
“That was a test and you failed miserably. Seriously, what the fuck were you thinking?”
I clench the arms of my chair. “I was thinking that I don’t want to marry you!”
He gives me a stifling look. “Keep your voice down.”
“Look, nothing happened—”
“I saw what happened.”
“He’s completely insane. I made a mistake—I panicked.”
“I can’t help you live if you keep doing stupid things like this. Do you understand me? You cannot talk to that cop again. You cannot be seen with him.”
Regret already seethes inside me, but not more than the resentment.
He puts Étienne back on the changing table and turns around. In seconds he’s grabbed both my arms and yanked me out of the chair. Nails break my skin.
“If we didn’t have somewhere to go, I’d wrap that collar around your neck and flay your ass until it burned bright.”
“Where—?” It’s the only word I can force through my lips.
* * *
Luc grips his parking brake so hard that his knuckles shine with whiteness. The car stops in front of a gray house with a giant maple tree in the middle of the lawn. I’m afraid to look at his face, but I do it anyway. He looks pale but determined.
“I need you to pretend we’re a happy couple.”
“I know.”
“It’s the first time in years my mother’s agreed to see me.”
The hope on his face tugs at my heart.
“I know things are fucked up between us, but please don’t mess this up. You know how important this is to me.”
The plea in his voice makes my chest tighten. I don’t want to feel sympathy for him, but I do. He brought it up often when we’d lie together in bed.
The moment Dad found out I was a wise guy, I was dead to him.
I used to think we had that sort of thing in common. He was disowned, and I was an orphan.
“I won’t.”
He makes a small nod and then opens his door. I get out and Luc grabs Étienne’s car seat, and we head to the door. I can’t help but notice how meticulous his appearance is, and I wonder if it’s a desperate attempt to win back his mother’s affection.
Man, this is beyond fucked up. I’m visiting my kidnapper’s mother.
I grab Luc’s free hand, thinking that I should do the thing properly. He gives me a curious look, and I shrug.
Together we walk up the little driveway to his parents’ house. He only releases my hand when he approaches the reddish door, and then he knocks hard.
After a few seconds Luc glances at me, and I have the strangest urge to comfort him. To tell him it’s going to be all right.
Then the door cracks open to reveal a sliver of a petite woman with very straight blonde hair. “Luc?”
“Hi, Mom.”
She throws the door wide open. Her eyes graze over me briefly until they jump to her son. Her hands fly to her mouth the moment she sees the horrible scar running down his face.
“Oh my God!”
“It’s okay, Mom. I’m fine. It was a long time ago.”
Like hell you’re fine.
“This is my son, Étienne.”
Luc’s mother bursts into tears when she sees the baby tucked in the car seat, and then she waves us in frantically.
“Come in!”
Looking cautiously happy, Luc steps through the threshold and beckons me forward.
It’s a small house. A wooden staircase leads from the foyer to the second floor. To the right there’s a large living room with burgundy-red walls. Luc’s mother wraps her skinny arms around his neck as he stoops to hug her back, tears trailing down her thin face.
“I can’t believe it—I can’t.”
“Mom, this is my girlfriend, Claire.”
Oh, I’m a girlfriend?